Tortilla Crumbs

In a Mexican restaurant you can always tell when you got the last of the chips in your basket.  They're all crumbly.  Same thing happens at home, the bottom of the bag is nothing but crumbs.  Well I have a recipe that's perfect for all those crumbs.  You get a fantastic dinner and the satisfaction of knowing that you did not waste any of the chips!!  I tore this recipe out of a Southern Living magazine.  Apparently, that was in May 2008.  It's stayed with me that long, so you know the recipe must be a keeper.

I love On The Border tortilla chips, especially the red corn with a touch of garlic.  I could probably eat the entire bag. . . . . .

 

 

 The mix

 

 

 The meat

 

 

 The dinner

Tortilla-Crusted Pork
2 lb pork tenderloin
1/2 cup finely crushed blue-corn tortilla chips
1/2 cup finely crushed tortilla chips
1 Tbsp coarsely ground pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided

1. Remove silver skin from tenderloin leaving a thin layer of fat covering the tenderloin.  Cut tenderloin into 1 inch thick medallions.
2. Combine chips and next 4 ingredients in a bowl.  Dip pork into 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil and dredge in tortilla chip mixture.
3. Cook pork medallions in remaining 1 1/2 Tbsp hot oil in a large skillet over medium heat 6 minutes on each side or until done.

I made some yummy Mexican rice.  I got the recipe here from PW.  I cut the recipe in half, and didn't have all the exact ingredients on hand but with what I had it still turned out yummy! 

The only thing missing from this was a scrumptious margarita.  Unfortunately, my alcohol is not very well stocked right now.  Apparently, babies don't like margarita flavored milk.  Who knew?  That's ok, we'll get it stocked back up once I'm no longer a milk cow.  Until then, our Mexican nights will be booze free.  Hope you enjoy the pork, it's a winner at our house.

Sunday Fun Day

I had every intention of doing something "fun" with my family today.  The zoo, Powell Gardens, something outside in the beautiful weather. . . . . . . . .but I started panicking about next weekend and how many people we are going to have at our house for Emma's baptism so I decided to stick around the house and work on some projects.  Thankfully, they were fun projects for the girls.

After church and breakfast we headed over to family tree nursery.  Darren bought me a deal saver earlier in the week, and I could not wait to spend it.  My container gardens suffered over the summer.  Between the horrible heat and a newborn baby I didn't do much with my gardens.  I could not wait to fill some containers full of festive fall flowers!

Emma in the jungle:

 

 

 Abby getting ready to work.

 

 

 Picture break.

 

 

 Silly sisters.

 

 

 Pretty baby.

 

 

 Helping Emma with tummy time.

 

 

 Mom can you see me?

 

 

 Back to my container.  I love the way this one turned out.  I can't wait for the all the flowers to start blooming.  I have two of these on either side of the garage door.  Here's what I put in it:

1. Red Rooster Leatherleaf Sedge
2. Diascia hybrid in Flirtation Orange
3. Allegra Yellow Belgian Mum
4. Galactic Lettuce

 

 

 Grace runs for the camera, and the pot does look better with her in the picture.

 

 

 Daddy and Emma take a football break while the girls and I run some errands. 

 

 

 Back at home Daddy and Emma come outside to see our new purchases (because we went back to Family Tree) and Abby had to ensure Emma was properly strapped in the stroller.

 

 

 We filled up two more pots that we put on either side of our front door.  In these pots we put:

1. Nerola Orange Belgian Mum
2. Neon Violet Pansy's
3. Red Acre Cabbage

 

 

 Did I mention I'm a sucker for a deal?  This HEAVY statue of Mother Mary was marked down $30.  So guess what, she found her way into my van.  Once home she found her way into one of my front flower gardens!

 

 

The weather was beautiful today and I'm glad we spent most of it outside.  If I knew it wasn't going to get so hot again this week I would have been super excited over the cooler temps.  Maybe if I keep on decorating for fall I we will start to see some cooler temps that stick around.  Happy fall planting!

Happy Birthday Hubby

Tis the season.  In our family, that means birthday season.  September 1 starts off with my Dad's birthday.  Next up Darren.  Then me.  Then Abby.  And so on and so on.  Throw in a couple of holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas and pretty much every weekend from now until the end of the year is full for us.  The girls were very excited for Darren's birthday.  For days leading up to it they kept telling him they were going to throw him a surprise party.  You can imagine his excitement.


Signing of the card.

 

You only see one small gift bag in this picture but we really did give him a couple gifts.

 

 Grace "painted" her face with markers, and they put a workout head band on Emma, otherwise, this would have been a great picture!  As it is, I'm surprised that I got all four of them looking at the camera.

 

 

 Darren's favorite.  Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and Reese's Peanut Butter cups on top.  Thanks to my friend Julie for this awesome frosting recipe.  The cake is not elaborate, but it was dang good!

 

 I was four candles short of having enough for Darren's cake, so we went with 10 candles.  Everyone got a turn to spit blow out the candles on the cake.  Except Emma.  She hasn't got that one down yet.

 

 Do you see the look on his face?  Are you really going to take my picture while I'm trying to eat my cake?  Why yes dear, I am.

 

 Notice I have total control of the camera and you will not see any pictures of me shoveling in that super delicious cake.

 

Happy Birthday Big Papa!  Hope you had a great day!

70th Birthday Fun

Back in May my family started planning a surprise birthday party for my Aunt Pat.  Anyone that knows my family knows we love a good party, and Aunt Pat turning 70 was the perfect excuse to throw one.  So, out went the invites.  Don't you love them?  I whipped those up at Shutterfly and was so happy with how they turned out.

 

 

The location for the party was Armour Loft.  I highly recommend this venue if you are looking for a place to have a small wedding or a larger than your house can hold party.  The loft has a lot of character, and was absolutely perfect for our party.  You can even put a special message on the

marquee out front!

 

 

 

The color theme for the party was robin's egg blue, green, and chocolate brown.  Knowing Aunt Pat loves birdhouses my Mom started collecting them as they cropped up on sale along with lots of greenery, birds, and candles.

 

Sierra's Cakes did the cake for this soiree.  We surprisingly had some left over!

 

 

Each table had a different centerpiece.  I somehow missed getting a picture of each of them, but you get the idea.

 

 

Pat's big arrival!

 

SURPRISE

 

Pat and her oldest grandchild, Kylie.

 

 My Mom and her sister Susan.

 

Pat's oldest grandson loads up the cake with candles.

 

 She was able to blow them all out without a fire extinguisher!

Pat and her sisters.

 

Pat and her grand kids.

 

Pat and her family.

 

 

Everyone had a great time partying it up for Aunt Pat's 70th.  My girls got to stay up later than normal and had a blast playing with all their cousins.  Maybe these were thank you kisses because they had such a good time?